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07-20-2008, 01:26 PM
OK, time for a philosophical response to Chris' original rant. This is not about possible technological solutions although there may be many. It's about what we think this country is all about.
I just saw a preview last night for a new movie starring Bill Maher which lampoons religion, in which there is a clip of the president saying, in a stupid and simple-minded way, that he believes that God wants all people to be free. Everyone in the theater laughed, including me. And yet, if he had said something like, " I believe that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these being life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" everyone would have nodded in solemn agreement.
I'm not saying I believe in God, but I do believe that our country was founded on the belief that each of us is entitled (that is, has an inalienable right) to be free. And that freedom guarantees that the government does not have the right to say that Chris can't ride a Ducati or drive a Porsche, any more than it can say that a soccer mom with one kid can't drive a Suburban if she can afford the gas.
In legal products, we let the market decide, and the market consists of hundreds of millions of individual decisions made by free men and women. $4.50 gas kills SUV sales - you don't need a decree to make that happen. But decrees, even by well intentioned people, always hurt someone and have unintended consequences. Our system is designed to minimize such decrees. And that is why a rant for the government to step in and save us from ourselves is, in the short and the long run, the worst possible solution to this major, but likely temporary dislocation. Even if gas stays where it is for a while, Americans will adapt. GM may not survive but someone will step into the breach. Do not throw out the baby with the bath water.
Now I apologize for my rant. Flame suit on.
I just saw a preview last night for a new movie starring Bill Maher which lampoons religion, in which there is a clip of the president saying, in a stupid and simple-minded way, that he believes that God wants all people to be free. Everyone in the theater laughed, including me. And yet, if he had said something like, " I believe that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these being life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" everyone would have nodded in solemn agreement.
I'm not saying I believe in God, but I do believe that our country was founded on the belief that each of us is entitled (that is, has an inalienable right) to be free. And that freedom guarantees that the government does not have the right to say that Chris can't ride a Ducati or drive a Porsche, any more than it can say that a soccer mom with one kid can't drive a Suburban if she can afford the gas.
In legal products, we let the market decide, and the market consists of hundreds of millions of individual decisions made by free men and women. $4.50 gas kills SUV sales - you don't need a decree to make that happen. But decrees, even by well intentioned people, always hurt someone and have unintended consequences. Our system is designed to minimize such decrees. And that is why a rant for the government to step in and save us from ourselves is, in the short and the long run, the worst possible solution to this major, but likely temporary dislocation. Even if gas stays where it is for a while, Americans will adapt. GM may not survive but someone will step into the breach. Do not throw out the baby with the bath water.
Now I apologize for my rant. Flame suit on.